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Timeline of Martian History
Pre-Colonization Mars - The Ares Missions (2029-2042) The first succesful landing of people on Mars was the four Ares missions. The missions were conducted by the International Mars Initiative (IMI), which consisted of the agencies in charge of the International Space Station. It was revealed that NASA always had an eye on colonizing Mars, as part of the mission for Ares I was to gather almost 15 kg of soil samples. These samples were later used to create a simulation of a potential Martian ecosystem. For the same reason Ares III brought a botanist. From the Ares IV in 2035 the IMI was joined by the Nigirian NASRDA and the Chinese CNSA. Unmanned Prefabs - The Hestia Missions (2044-2050) When Ares VII returned to Earth preperations began to colonize Mars. The place chosen for colonization was the Kasei Valles, as it would be close to water should the colonists succeed in terraforming the planet. The four Hestia missions sent drones and robots to build the required infrastructure to sustain life on the planet. Hestia I brought a power plant in the form of sun panels. Hestia II brought rudimentary mining and foundry equipment, which made it possible for the robots to get more material to work with. Hestia III brought a large quantity of organic matter, including microbes and bacteria, which was made to prepare the "Oxygen factory", a forest made with the purpose of clearing the air. Hestia IV brought several trees to plant in the new soil along with food supplies for the upcoming colony missions. Colonizing Mars - The Bowie Missions The manned missions with the purpose of colonizing Mars bore the name Bowie. The name was chosen as a reference to the old song "Life on Mars?" by David Bowie. Bowie I (2053) - The First Colonists The first manned mission to Mars which planned for a permanent stay was the Bowie I. 37 people were selected to be the first colonists on Mars. When the colonists arrived at the colony, which got the name Bowie Base One, it already consisted of living quarters, two green houses, the oxygen factory, the foundry, and the solar panel power plant. The first colonists began tilling the soil in the green houses, in an effort to make life sustainable on the planet. When, in late 2053, the colony was asked what first Martian meal (mashed potatoes) tasted like, the reply was "Out of this world". Mars Year 0 When Bowie I landed the Martian calendar started. This was decided after long deliberations where several points in time was used as a reference for Sol 0. Most prominent of these suggestions were the first human on the planet with the Ares I mission and the beginning of the colonization with the Hestia I landing. Other suggestions involved the start of each mission, which were discarded as those missions would follow earth time. The last suggestion was to set the date of 20th July 1975, where the Viking I was the first succesful lander on Mars. It was decided to write martian dates with the prefix MY for Martian Year and EY for Earth Year. The standard for writing a Martian date would then be MYyear/month/day (eg. MY25/11/35). Although later practice have omitted Bowie II (MY1) - The First Terraformers The second manned mission brought more people who worked on the purpose of making Mars a liveable planet. Making the science easier, if you had direct access to the planet you're studying. Here the building robots had constructed a second living quarters dome and a laboratory dome. Bowie III (MY2) - The Mars Hamlet With the arrival of the third mission the focus was on maintenance and new buildings. The building robots had continued preparing the area and by this point they had a hard time keeping up with the development of Bowie Base One. Expansions to the foundry and a third expansion of the living quarters was completed just before the arrival. The size of the colony was now over a hundred people it could officially be called a hamlet. Bowie IV (MY3) - Continuing Life The mission of Bowie IV was to bring more people to the colony amongst the people brought to Mars with Bowie IV was Ying Yue Jiang and Min Xiuying, who were the first to become parents on Mars, they were part of a small contingent from the Chinese Federation. On 4/10/31 Fei Hong Xiuying was born, two and a half years after his parents settled on Mars. Terraforming Mars Melting The Ice (MY7) The first step in making life on Mars possible was making sure the planet could sustain water. Plans were made to melt the ice caps, but inevitably this was not enough. An asteroid was found that had enough water and it was redirected with a few booster rockets, sent from Earth, the so-called Proteus Strategy. This was enough to create the Boreal sea to the north flooding the lowest parts of the planet. The Proteus Strategy was successfully used several times each time adding a few more meters to the sea level. The atmosphere wasn't thick enough to hold most of the water in which required more ice asteroids than first intended, but some of the water started to form ice caps on the mountains. Life on Mars (MY11-18) The first life on Mars that wasn't in a biodome, was a few engineered microbes, bacteria and algae, which were trained to survive in the martian atmosphere. This mixture of mircocelular life was spread out by airborne drones, which made sure that most of the planet was covered by these small lifeforms. Within a few months they made the soil able to support moss, which helped further thicken the atmosphere and create more oxygen. The first rain started, but in very small quantities. The Proteus Disaster (MY13) On the 13/04/05 the Proteus IX was moved to be deployed, when a storm interfered with the equipment and the connection to the booster rockets was lost at a vital time. The asteroid ended up crashing into Mars far closer to Bowie Base One than calculated. This resulted in tidal wave much bigger than expected, that flooded the Kasei Valles. This led to the destruction of parts of the Bowie Base One and cost the life of 4 colonists. The flooding is believed to have contributed to an increased life in the Acedalia Bay as it brought moss spores to the bottom of the sea and a few algae to the surface. First walk on the outside (MY18) With the thickening of the atmosphere the Proteus programme was scrapped after Proteus XII in MY15. Since the first terraformers had arrived, they had been trying to evolve pine trees that could withstand the Martian atmosphere. In MY16 the airborne drones started to spread seeds for trees all over the planet.